Well it's about time for the holidays again this year, so we here at DrinkCraftBeer.com thought the time was right for another craft beer and food pairing article. And what better food to pair with craft beer for the holidays than cookies!? Trust us, Santa will be much happier with craft beer and cookies than the same old milk and cookies he finds everywhere else. Or, better yet, eat cookies and drink craft beer while exchanging gifts with your family and friends. Or just do it for dessert! Craft beer and cookies are a can't lose combination in any situation.
This time, we went a little beyond what we normally do. We know you're spending money on presents this time of year and don't exactly have a ton of cash left over to be buying more stuff to bring home. Beer is a necessity (at least we think so), but cookies you can make yourself. So, in the spirit of saving more money for gifts, we've baked these cookies ourselves and are including the recipes with the tasting notes. That way you can save some money AND impress your mom with you baking abilities. Trust us, if we can make them then anybody can.
Also, for those of you who live in the Boston area, we'll be running a tasting with these combinations at The Wine Gallery in Brookline from 3-6pm on Saturday, December 20th. Come on by and try them for yourselves!
Wine Gallery Brookline
375 Boylston Street
Brookline, MA
By T: Green Line, D to Brookline Hills Stop
Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar & Oatmeal Cranberry Butterscotch Cookies
This pairing was a last minute surprise. We were thinking a darker stout would work best, but saw this and (luckily) gave it a try. The cookies definitely make the beer better, and the beer makes the cookies better. The sweet malt (beer), cinnamon (cookie) and the oatmeal (cookie) pair great, while the hazelnut plays off the super-sweet butterscotch to add a very interesting dimension. Also, the butterscotch and the brown sugar really bring out the hazelnut in the beer. The cranberry wraps everything up by adding a little tart tang at the end that really puts a finish to it.
Get the recipe here. Our friend Janice made them for this tasting and they're delicious!
Southern Tier Choklat Imperial Chocolate Stout & Peanut Butter Cookies
I mean, was there even a question? A super chocolaty stout and peanut butter… It’s a given. Yeah, this is delicious. It’s like a peanut butter cup. No brainer! (We know the cookies in the picture have chocolate… the tasting cookies will not have chocolate in them.)
Recipe: For these cookies, just get the Betty Crocker Peanut Butter Cookie mix and follow the directions. They come out very well. We told you that these cookies would be easy to make!
Vichtenaar Flemish Ale & Double Chocolate Cookies
Some of you long-term readers and tasters might remember this brewery from our Valentine's Day Beer & Chocolate tasting. We sampled Eicht Kriekenbier with the Taza 80% Cacao Chocolate bar. Well the beer went over so well, we wanted to include another beer from this little-known Belgian brewery! Actually, if you came later to that tasting, you've already tried Vichtenaar... Eicht Kriekenbier was so popular that we ran out part way through the tasting, so we had to switch to the Vichtenaar. The substitution went over so well that we decided we had to do a custom pairing.
The fudgy chocolate and 60% cacao chunks match perfectly with the tart but sweet Vichtenaar. The beer has a cherry-ish fruit flavor with a tart finish. The cookies are super fudgy without being overly sweet. The tart beer cuts the fudge, while the sweetness and the dark fruit of the beer go perfectly with the dark chocolate. We've determined that dark chocolate and tart sweet/dark fruit beer goes perfectly with dark chocolate. This one is a must try!
Recipe: These are slightly more difficult than the Peanut Butter Cookies... You still start with the Betty Crocker Double Chocolate Cookie mix. You're then going to strain out the chocolate chunks that are in there, and replace them with about 9 oz of Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips (most of a 11.5 oz bag, but not all). This will make the cookies much richer and more chocolaty, which is key to pairing with the tart Vichtenaar.
Peak Organic Espresso Amber Ale
We tried this beer a few weeks ago and were completely blown away by it. The espresso is definitely the dominant flavor, with a very dry coffee finish. It's almost like drinking black coffee. The malt from the amber base beer tempers what would otherwise be an overly astringent brew and turns this into a delicious coffee beer that we've never seen the likes of before. We tried pairing it with every different kind of cookie we had available to us (and that was a lot of cookies) but, in the end, decided the beer really needed to be tried alone to truly be appreciated. Try this after you've had dinner or after dessert, just like you'd normally have a cup of coffee, an espresso, a cappuccino or anything like that. And those of you that don't like coffee don't fret. A lot of our non-coffee drinking friends have enjoyed it just as much as we have. This one will throw anybody for a loop, seasoned craft beer drinker or not!
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